BLOG: For some weird reason, my blog has suddenly become a destination for people from all over the world, I have no idea what that’s about:

visitors in the last 24 hours

The searches that bring people to my blog are varied; ~50% are about knitting, and the rest are about such a mish-mash I wonder what the searchers think when they get to my blog and see that perhaps I used one word in their search somewhere in my whole site.  Anyway, it’s new, this global deal. I have a reliable cluster of visitors from the UK and from Paris, and then usually just a random one here and there. Late last week I had a flurry from Africa, which was particularly startling because I never have African visitors and I’ve wondered why.

KNITTING: I finally finished the body of Marnie’s sweater and have started a sleeve, which is going pretty quickly:

whee! starting sleeve #1

I think today I’m going to go ahead and soak and block the body of the sweater, so I can seam the shoulders and do the turtleneck. I worry about hitting a slump with the second sleeve, so I want to have something else to do, and I also want to see it so close to finished that it pulls me forward. It’s been such a mild winter I really hope she gets to wear it.

READING: If you’re the same kind of nerd as me, you might like the book I read yesterday (Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style, by Mark Garvey). It’s a loving look at The Elements of Style, at E. B. White and Harold Ross and The New Yorker, and the world of people who are passionate about this little book including a host of famous writers who talk about their relationship with the little book. It’s a quick read (about as quick as The Elements of Style, for that matter), and you may — like me — read it with a silly grin on your face. Since I didn’t go online yesterday, I read that book, I read this week’s issue of The New York Review of Books, I pulled everything off my bookshelves and reorganized (and found of bunch of surprises, wowie), I cleaned the bathroom top to bottom, I did some shopping, and I spent a lot of time keeping my husband company. We watched Thirteen Days, that 2000 movie about the Cuban missile crisis — much more his kind of movie than mine, and I was only 3 when it happened. But when the spy planes flew low over the Cuban stockpiles, my heart raced and that surprised me.

HELP: A friend here in Manhattan is heading up a project called Legal Aid Society Trafficking Victims Legal Defense & Advocacy Project (she’s a lawyer for Legal Aid). Victims of sex trafficking are removed from their circumstances and hidden away in safety; she has organized a number of small knitting groups for them and is seeking donations of yarn and needles. Many of these women are from other countries, but some are US citizens. Their larger needs are more urgent, of course, but the knitting efforts are designed to help their spirits, and we know how well this works. The women have nothing and the woman at Legal Aid who is organizing this for them has no specific wish list. Just think about what any new knitter might need/want — yarn, needles/hooks, a nice project bag maybe, notions, anything at all. Others are organizing clothing and coat drives for the women, so we’re the lucky ones who get to give them this kind of joy. If you have any interest in helping, just let me know and I’ll give you the mailing address for the woman at Legal Aid. I posted a note in a couple of Ravelry forums and several knitters are sending boxes, but [unfortunately] there’s a steady stream of women so the need doesn’t stop.

Have a wonderful Sunday, whatever you’re up to! I’m looking forward to spending a few hours with a certain humpbacked wicked king.

Within 7 minutes, people in Brussels and Oregon both googled dadgummit and ended up with me. It’s a small world after all. But then — somewhat frighteningly — this, a few hours later:

What did surprise, me, though was Nancy’s first question of me, which was why. Why do I do this, why do I write in this public forum, why do I share so much of myself here. It’s a good question, and it’s certainly one we all think about if we keep a blog — why, how much, what voice, where’s the line. We also grapple with our own definition of the personal, if we reveal personal experiences. Even though it’s a question I’ve thought about, my response was awkward and kind of graceless, and not really much of an answer. It’s such a good question, so I thought I’d say more here.

Why do I do this, why do I keep this blog, why do I reveal the things I reveal? First, I kept a blog a few years ago that was really personal; in fact, compared to that one, this blog does not feel personal at all. For a number of reasons, some of which had to do with one of the blog’s followers, I shut down the blog. And I missed it, terribly. This blog represents a kind of compromise, because the fact is that I don’t talk about deeply personal material.

So what does that mean to me, “personal material?” I talk about knitting, obviously (not very personal there); I share my thoughts about things, my feelings about things, some of my experiences; I tiptoe around the edges of sharing some bits about my past, but typically in oblique fashion. I don’t, though, talk about my deeply personal struggles, of which there are many. Those are the private issues I share with friends and my family, and sometimes not even with them. I don’t talk about issues that carry embarrassment or shame, typically. I don’t talk about experiences from my past that are shocking.

So here’s the big why, for me. When I was growing up, our life was secret. Our family life was extremely different behind the doors of our house than anyone knew. This is true for a lot of people, and there are lots of different reasons this happens. Mine may be unique in degree, and in reason, but this is not a rare thing. We children were explicitly told that everyone was like us, which left me with a profound uncertainty about the world, and an abiding desire to peek into others’ lives. I love driving around at night, and seeing how people live (if their curtains are open!) — ah, so that’s what people do. They watch tv. They talk, they play games, they knit, they do housework, the kids do homework. That’s what people really do at home. Ah. All these years later, I still need verification.

I got a PhD in psychology because I don’t understand people; human life is mysterious to me, why people do what they do, and anyway, what do people do?

So I write in the personal way I write because my life is not a secret. Parts are private, but I’m the one who gets to decide what that means, and where the line is. I write to feel less alone, because I think we all feel the same things, we all struggle in the dark, we all have moments of thinking we’re the only ones who, we all face the essential questions of meaning and responsibility, and we all sit alone in the silence now and then and long for connection.

I write to be known (even though I fully realize that what I present is crafted, and you’re knowing some version of me that may bear only a slight resemblance to the full me). I write to connect with you. I write so I don’t feel so alone, and I write so you don’t feel so alone, too.

I have too much work to do to knit or tend to blogs (either as a reader or a writer), but I wanted to show you something. When I was lucky enough to visit my daughter Katie in Austin, last October, I taught her how to knit. She took to it immediately — a natural knitter, she is. We bought her some beautiful apple green yarn, and she launched into a great scarf. When I left her, she was a few sections into it, and going strong. Then her little dog grabbed it one afternoon and ate a chunk out of it, which kind of took the wind out of Katie’s sails. She frogged it back to before the chomp, and tried to get going again. Then she decided she might like to have another project underway too, so she picked the Habitat hat, by Jared Flood. Kinda intense for a brand new knitter! Especially since I live too far away to just pop over for a quick here’s-how-to-do-that session. WELL! Look what she did, her very first-ever FO:

Katie's husband Trey, wearing his new hat

I’m completely blown away! Here’s her project page on rav, if you want to see more pictures. This time I am bragging. Mama’s rights.

Back to trying to teach stats to people who don’t like stats. And editing manuscripts by people whose imaginations exceed their writing grasp. It’s one of those days, friends.

• the comment-leaving process. If you have a blog, sign out of your account and then go to one of your posts and try to leave a comment, as if you’re just a reader. Some blogs make it so easy – you write the comment, enter your info (or maybe it’s already there if you’re a regular commenter), click once, and you’re done. I LOVE THOSE. I hope my blog gives you an easy process, but please let me know if it doesn’t! Some blogs, and I think it happens most often on blogger, make it really difficult – and it’s just a matter of settings. I know most people don’t really understand all the settings and are just trying to keep spam off their blogs, but here’s what it takes to leave comments on some blogs: you write your comment, and pick the way you’ll be identified (I always use OpenID if I can, or url). So you enter that information and click post. You think you’re posting your comment, right? NOPE. Now a window opens and you have to enter the letters and numbers you see, so you do that and you click post, and you think you’re finally posting your comment, right? WRONG again. Now you have to click post again.  This isn’t anything more than a mild irritation, obviously; no one is starving or dying because it takes multiple steps to leave a comment, but gee. Make it easier, please.

• photos – For this one, I think I have to point a blaming finger at Pioneer Woman. Heresy, I know! She’s greatly loved by one and all (and I’m a fan too), and it feels like saying bad things about Mother Theresa (though I’ve done that), but she started it. Pioneer Woman, I mean. Her posts — especially her cooking posts — feature a couple of words and a giant photo, repeated dozens of times in a post. It’s like this, here’s an imaginary post: First, melt the butter [giant photo of butter melting in a pan] and then stir in the garlic [giant photo of garlic in the melted butter] repeat 3 dozen times. This is great if you’re trying to learn how to melt butter and stir in garlic, but in my Google Reader, I have to pagedown pagedown pagedown pagedown so many times just to get to the end of the bloody post. In her wake, bloggers everywhere include step-by-step photos of every little thing, every tiny step. This is cool, this is great, but it’s really nice if you include a “more after the jump” deal so people can go see whole photo-laden post if they want to, but they aren’t subjected to it every bloody time they open their Google Reader.

And thus concludes the end of my blogrump. My blog grump. Maybe I’m just grumpy because I accidentally put too much cinnamon in my oatmeal this morning. And the city hasn’t picked up the trash since Christmas Eve, and there’s just a tiny narrow path down my street between the giant piles of trash spilling out from both sides of the street.

Here – this’ll change the mood. I love these little boys.

In 2010 I wrote 363 posts and added 17 pages to this blog, with 748 attachments in total.

In 2010 the posts were commented 1809 times, from which 716 comments (39.58%) were written by registered users/authors.

TOP 10 commenters in 2010 (I love you all — and everyone should visit their blogs, for real. I’ve linked to them to make it easy for you!):

• Jocelyn: 118 comments
• Tammy: 86 comments
• Sara: 73 comments
• Laura: 70 comments
• pip: 67 comments
• Kty: 48 comments
• Andrea: 43 comments
• Kelli: 38 comments
• perches: 34 comments
• Anne Campbell: 29 comments

There are plenty of new people who are lovely commenters, and I appreciate each and every one of you who ever leaves me a note. Really. Thank you.

TOP 10 most commented posts in 2010:

• a Christmas wish of mine….I can grant: 65 comments
• midcentury modern: 23 comments
• translation, 100 posts, and a giveaway: 22 comments
• catching up: 22 comments
• o my love, my darling, i hunger for the fall: 22 comments
• reading books: 22 comments
• Queue overload! SOS! Advice welcomed!: 20 comments
• i love it when a thing comes together: 20 comments
• le picnic: 18 comments
• a sneaky little idea just came to me: 17 comments

There were all kinds of other details in the summary but they were boring.

It was quite a year. Marnie got married, I quit my stressful job and went on my own, two pretty major things. I saw my daughters (yay!) but not for the holidays (boo!). I knit a few things, was healthy all year, traveled to Honduras, Laos and Cambodia, plus Austin and Chicago and upstate New York. Life is good, I am blessed and lucky beyond measure, I have wonderful friends of all kinds, and more things to do than time to do them. I met a bunch of new people who add so much to my life, even though we’ve never met in person. Life is so funny.

Happy new year, y’all. I hope we’re all here next year, able to say all the same good things and more, and count fewer bad things.

1. sherlock
2. pip
3. amanda
4. katie
5. turtlegirl
6. pamela
7. nancy
8. andrea
9. kelli
10. kty
11. sara
12. alannah
13. jannah
14. cdw
15. jo
16. amy v.
17. eskimimi
18. oiyi
19. cate
20. tammy
21. karie
22. ivy
23. louise
24. karen
25. allison
26. carol
27. kate
28. jocelyn

OIYI! I have a specific reason I was secretly hoping each one of you would be the winner. The reason in my heart for Oiyi is that I met her by winning a giveaway on her blog, immediately before Rhinebeck. Oiyi, I’ll be emailing you. And everyone else, thank you for being here with me. I think about you when something great happens and can’t wait to share it with you. Have a good week, and I’ll be back.

And do you play DJ, do you go to YouTube and pull up every old song you can think of? Because you can find the most obscure stuff, songs most people seem to forget about. It’s always there, whatever you’re looking for.

With one exception. I wanted to find a clip from The Wizard of Oz, the one where Glinda warbles to the munchkins:

Come out, come out, wherever you are….

You know that song, it’s a good one. And it would’ve been so perfect for this post. Obviously a picture (or video) would’ve saved me the thousand words it’s taken me to tell you about it.

But! Here’s my Christmas wish. Come out, come out, whoever you are. If you’ve been lurking and reading my little blog and you’ve never left a message, believe me I get that!! I read blogs a lot, and rarely leave comments. Those of you who do comment regularly — Laura, Jocelyn, Dina, Pamela, Kelli, Kty, Pip, Tammy, Alannah, Perches, Sara, my daughters — and those who comment on occasion — Noreen, Janna, Alison, Karie, Nancy, Andrea, turtlegirl, cdw, Allison, eskimimi (and apologies for not naming the rest!) — well, you just make my day. Thank you for being part of my life in such a wonderful way.

But if you feel like it, please leave a tiny little comment here so I have a sense of who’s out there. You can make up an alias if you like, of course. If you write a blog and feel like including your url when you leave the comment, I’d love to check out your blog too.

I’ve met some of the nicest people in the world through this blog. Obviously we don’t really know each other. And obviously, if I were in big trouble at 2am and needed help, I’d need to call on someone else. But I do feel very lucky to have met you all, and count you among the blessings of my life.

xoL

p.s. and if you are so inclined, you could also tell me if you subscribe to my blog! But I don’t want to push it.

p.p.s. i’ve talked myself into this: i got so touched, thinking about how much a part of my life you feel, how much your readership, your connection, your always-kind comments (unlike asshole spam) make me feel, I decided to turn this into a giveaway. I have to decide what the prize will be, and as soon as I do, I’ll do another post, but for now here’s the deal: I’ll randomly pick a commenter! Even if you’re here for the first time. Even if you’re in the U.K. or somewhere else.

But a lot of spam comments are just mean – like, “you can’t do better than this?” or “Real stupid post, you should just quit.” GOOD GRIEF. Every one of them sounds like the mean voice that occasionally squeaks around in the dark corners of my mind, and you know, that squeaky voice doesn’t need any help.

My new camera battery came today so I show you where I am with my really lovely sweater-in-progress:

moving down the body now - sleeves are divided

And the blanket I took with us on vacation, I got a lot done on it, though I’m only about 1/3 finished at this point:

you can't tell, but i got a LOT done!

When I left, I had finished only 2 repeats I think. Anyway. Feeling kind of dazed and stunned right now, so this is a half-assed post. I’m still hit hard by the reverse jet-lag, and the lack of sleep is accumulating; on top of that, I have a lot of work to do – good, of course – and I’ve spent the day buried in it. Now I have to head downtown for my monthly writing group, and I can’t imagine that I’ll write very much that’s coherent.

Oy. Boring myself here.

click here to visit our travel blog!

We’re en route to Laos and Cambodia, y’all – you may not know this, but we’re good about keeping up our travel blog while we’re traveling. As long as we have a connection, we try to post every day. Pictures, stories, even little bits of video. We’ve done this for all our travel blogs – vietnam, croatia, peru, holland, honduras, india, everywhere.

We’ll land in Phnom Penh Saturday Nov 20 around 6am (NYtime), so we won’t have any posts until later that day, at the earliest. But do check in with us now and then – we’ll be seeing some amazing things and we love to share! I’ll be back to Thrum-ming on December 5.

http://laoscam.blogspot.com

(four words to tempt you – Thanksgiving at ANGKOR WAT)

Angkor Wat at the approach of sunset - incredible....

Choum reap lia! and La gohn! (goodbye, in Khmer and Lao) See you from the other side of the world.

xoL